Multi Retailer The Seventh Seal (4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray) (Criterion Collection) [USA]

[ShadowWarrior]

Release Date: April 18, 2023

Price: $49.95 / $39.96

Purchase Link: Amazon The Criterion Collection

 

 

Quote

• 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Introduction from 2003 by director Ingmar Bergman
• Audio commentary and video afterword by Bergman expert Peter Cowie
• Bergman Island (2006), a feature-length documentary on Bergman by Marie Nyreröd
• Audio interview from 1998 with actor Max von Sydow
• Tribute to Bergman from 1989 by filmmaker Woody Allen
• Bergman 101, a selected video filmography tracing Bergman’s career, narrated by Cowie
• Trailer
• Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
• PLUS: An essay by critic Gary Giddins
  
  Cover by Neil Kellerhouse

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by ShadowWarrior

[BreakBeatDJ]

Yay for those who don’t own it.  But, this would be my third criterion version of this.  We need a Blu-Ray of spine 1 Grand Illusion, not a 4k of spine 2 The Seventh Seal.  

[Grendel]

I'm quite fond of The Seventh Seal.

I'm sure there are many that have a difficult time finding merit in the story-line, the pacing, the disjointed dialogue, the obtuse rationale for why certain individuals are given focus and most assuredly, what is the message being provided. I selected these particular points, because they were the ones that perplexed me the most and it was only through repeated viewing that I managed to grasp what the hell (I think) Bergman was even trying to say.

I'm confident that each viewer came to their own conclusions and I suspect they are as diverse as a Disney casting call but I'll mention if I may, the one I inevitably formed.

Sydow is of course, amazing and I think the man has secretly found the elixir of eternal youth, because he just never seemed to age like normal humans.

(I still think his death in 2020 was a masked illusion and he's chillin' with Elvis and Jim Morrison on a beach somewhere...)

The man in The Farce Awakens, seems not much different from the man in Seventh Seal, bar really good make-up. Maybe they should have got him instead of Guy Pierce for Prometheus but I digress.
 

His portrayal of a hardened Knight (Block) returning from the Crusades, gives distinct inflection for his persona and world view without rambling dialogue cluttering up the run-time and it provides him as an ideal foil to Death incarnate as he can righteously lean back and say "yeah, been there, done that".

That said, I don't think that Death proves to be the antithesis of Block. That role is far more admirably served by Jons, his own Squire, who regardless of the devastating times they are witnessing (the midst of The Black Plague scourging Europe) has almost an innocent, carefree and still hopeful outlook toward the future.
 

The townsfolk, serve as an eloquent foil to the morose dialogue betwixt Block and Death and their happenstance inclusion, serves to bring us back to the fact that yes, these are real people going through horrific times and not just some grand morality play set upon a chessboard without meaning.

It's my understanding that Bergman made this film to assuage his own terrifying realization of mortality that would pay visit on him like any other. Whether or not he found solace in his work, I don't know but I trust that many others, including myself, did.
 

This is a grand film. The word "masterpiece" is tossed about too frivolously for my liking but in essence, I think The Seventh Seal almost qualifies.

It's a hard film to enjoy as I don't think it was created to entertain. It was created to provide a message and many folk dislike films that attempt that (especially films that attempt that and fail miserably).

Personally, I love it but I certainly respect those who do not, even those whom find it disagreeable.

I believe it will give one something to think about though.

Cheers my friends;  🙂

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Grendel

[Fortis93]

I hope we get Wild Strawberries on 4K too!